In my opinion I thought Mel Gibson was the best Hamlet out of the versions we saw in class. He spoke his lines clearly and smoothly. Gibson used the right emotions like yelling when he needed to during his lines. He walked around the set when he wanted to act like he was pondering, and was still when he was deep in thought. Gibson didn't say his lines as if he had memorized them and spoke them as if it were natural. His actions and movement around the stage went write with the lines he was speaking.
Gibson's apperance as Hamlet only reinforces the reason why I think he played the best Hamlet. His clothing looked traditional and it matched his personality. This only helped Gibson play the role of Hamlet better.
Gibson played the best Hamlet out of the six versions by speaking his lines naturally and by acting the right way. His looks helped him appear more like Hamlet and I don't think any actor came close to being a better Hamlet.
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I would have to disagree with the opinion that Mel Gibson played the best Hamlet. His costume was too modern and his emotions were a little too artificial. Yes, he did speak his lines naturally and fluently, but I feel he could not convey his emotions in that same manner. He tried too hard, in fact, he seemed a little too angry.
I feel that the best actor for Hamlet was Derek Jacobi in the 1980 production. His clothes and hair were a little disheveled, making the act seem more genuine. He was also neither too mellow, nor too angry. What made Jacobi a genious in my mind was that he was able to speak as naturally as Gibson and control himself at the same time.
-Raj Putatunda
I definitely will agree that Mel Gibson played the best Hamlet. I believe that the other actors just did not cut it. I agree with Mr. Lazarow that the Kenneth Branagh version was pretty bad. His Hamlet had very poor acting skills and spoke his lines as if he was reciting them, not speaking them like he was experiencing them. Derrick Jacobi talked directly to the camera too often and the excessive sword swinging was completely over-the-top. Tony Richardson's version was very still and his Hamlet talked directly to the camera as well. Both Kevin Kline's and Richard Burton's versions were decent but I don't think they were quite as good as Mel Gibson's.
The idea that Mel Gibson played the best Hamlet is argueable but not exactly accurate. yes he did speak smoothly and showed a lot of emotion, however, he was also accented by the camera to give information that wasn't given in other performances like the kline performance.
Mel Gibson did do one thing that the others did not and that was the covering of his face which could show how concealed he wants and forces himself to be.
If it were up to me the greatest performance was the Richard Burton version. The emphasis on words lets your mind take hold of the events and paint a picture in your head. that is what you can do while watching it since the props are not as vivid as in the Gibson version. therefore, Gibson did play a good Hamlet but can not be placed in the same category as Burton's because of the use of props and financing envoled.
- Dan Bell
i think Ben said "the right way"... what do you mean by the "rght way"... is there a right way? how can you say that Mr. Gibson's thought process isn't flawed? you are giving him too much credit. you need to think about what you are saying, every person has their wn way of interpreting the text and no one person's idea is the right one. so in a sense i could say that i do not agree with you but i will not say that you said it wrong or the wrong way.
Everyone has their own way of looking at things. Therefore, nothing can be acted or done the wrong way.
I think that Mel Gibson's version was the best. But I mean, we're definitely not going to agree on which production is the best. We all have different opinions of how Hamlet should be played out because we all see it differently in our heads. We all have different definitions for crazy, so who's to say how Hamlet should act. We can look at the camera angles and lighting or the cut of the script -- but who decides how that should be done. I think the Gibson version is the best, therefore it is.
If the only thing that we're talking about is how good or bad a job the actors did playing Hmalet then I would have to say that Burton's version was the best. It's the best when your only taking into account how well they did acting the part of Hamlet, this is leaving out costume, lighting, the set. Burton did not go overboard with his production, yelling and screaming like some of them, but he also was not to quite like the Nicole Williamson and Derek Jacobi versions. Burton had the best way of getting his lines across with just the right amount of emotion.
I feel Tony Richardson's version is the best performance. It does have Hamlet talking to the camera a lot, I do not feel awkward by this at all. To me it didn't seem like he was talking to the audience, but more just thinking and spacing-out. And it wasn't too much, eventually his eyes wander around the set looking at other objects, but not necessarily focusing on them. It reminds me of my own thought process sometimes.
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